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Us Congress House Bill HB466

Us Congress 2023-2024 Regular Session

Us Congress House Bill HB466 Compare Versions

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11 I
22 118THCONGRESS
33 1
44 STSESSION H. R. 466
55 To amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to require voting systems
66 used in elections for Federal office to produce a voter-verified paper
77 ballot of each vote cast on the system, and for other purposes.
88 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
99 JANUARY24, 2023
1010 Mr. G
1111 OSARintroduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee
1212 on House Administration, and in addition to the Committee on the Budg-
1313 et, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each
1414 case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of
1515 the committee concerned
1616 A BILL
1717 To amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to require
1818 voting systems used in elections for Federal office to
1919 produce a voter-verified paper ballot of each vote cast
2020 on the system, and for other purposes.
2121 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
2222 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
2323 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
2424 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Securing America’s 4
2525 Elections Act of 2023’’. 5
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2929 SEC. 2. PROMOTING ACCURACY, INTEGRITY, AND SECU-1
3030 RITY THROUGH VOTER-VERIFIED PERMA-2
3131 NENT PAPER BALLOT. 3
3232 (a) B
3333 ALLOTVERIFICATION ANDAUDITCAPACITY.— 4
3434 (1) I
3535 N GENERAL.—Section 301(a)(2) of the 5
3636 Help America Vote Act of 2002 (52 U.S.C. 6
3737 21081(a)(2)) is amended to read as follows: 7
3838 ‘‘(2) B
3939 ALLOT VERIFICATION AND AUDIT CAPAC -8
4040 ITY.— 9
4141 ‘‘(A) V
4242 OTER-VERIFIED PAPER BALLOTS .— 10
4343 ‘‘(i) V
4444 ERIFICATION.—(I) The voting 11
4545 system shall require the production of a 12
4646 voter-verified paper ballot of the voter’s 13
4747 vote that shall be created by or made avail-14
4848 able for inspection and verification by the 15
4949 individual voter before the voter’s vote is 16
5050 cast and counted. For purposes of this 17
5151 subclause, a voter-verified paper ballot in-18
5252 cludes (but is not limited to) a paper ballot 19
5353 marked by the voter for the purpose of 20
5454 being counted by hand or read by an opti-21
5555 cal scanner or other similar device, a paper 22
5656 ballot prepared by the voter to be mailed 23
5757 to an election official (whether from a do-24
5858 mestic or overseas location), a paper ballot 25
5959 created through the use of a ballot mark-26
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6363 ing device or system, or a paper ballot pro-1
6464 duced by a touch screen or other electronic 2
6565 voting machine, so long as in each case the 3
6666 voter is permitted to verify the ballot in a 4
6767 paper form in accordance with this sub-5
6868 paragraph. 6
6969 ‘‘(II) The voting system shall provide 7
7070 the voter with an opportunity to correct 8
7171 any error made by the system in the voter- 9
7272 verified paper ballot before the permanent 10
7373 voter-verified paper ballot is preserved in 11
7474 accordance with clause (ii). 12
7575 ‘‘(III) The voting system shall not 13
7676 preserve the voter-verified paper ballots in 14
7777 any manner that makes it possible, at any 15
7878 time after the ballot has been cast, to asso-16
7979 ciate a voter with the record of the voter’s 17
8080 vote. 18
8181 ‘‘(ii) P
8282 RESERVATION.—The voter- 19
8383 verified paper ballot produced in accord-20
8484 ance with clause (i) shall be used as the of-21
8585 ficial ballot for purposes of any recount or 22
8686 audit conducted with respect to any elec-23
8787 tion for Federal office in which the voting 24
8888 system is used, and shall be preserved in 25
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9292 accordance with regulations promulgated 1
9393 by the Commission to establish criteria for 2
9494 the proper preservation and retention of 3
9595 the official ballots in the election. 4
9696 ‘‘(iii) M
9797 ANUAL AUDIT CAPACITY .— 5
9898 Each paper ballot produced pursuant to 6
9999 clause (i) shall be suitable for a manual 7
100100 audit equivalent to that of a paper ballot 8
101101 voting system, in accordance with the 9
102102 methods described in subparagraph (B). 10
103103 ‘‘(B) A
104104 PPROVED METHODS FOR MANUAL 11
105105 AUDITS.—The methods described in this sub-12
106106 paragraph with respect to the manual audit of 13
107107 voter-verified paper ballots are— 14
108108 ‘‘(i) audits conducted through the use 15
109109 of programmable electronic counting ma-16
110110 chines which are not capable of being con-17
111111 nected to the Internet, as determined in 18
112112 accordance with regulations promulgated 19
113113 by the Commission; or 20
114114 ‘‘(ii) if no machine described in clause 21
115115 (i) is available, an audit conducted by a 22
116116 hand count. 23
117117 ‘‘(C) R
118118 ESOLUTION OF DISPUTES WHEN 24
119119 PAPER BALLOTS HAVE BEEN SHOWN TO BE 25
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123123 COMPROMISED.—In the event that the paper 1
124124 ballots produced pursuant to subparagraph (A) 2
125125 with respect to an election for Federal office 3
126126 have been compromised, the State shall resolve 4
127127 the dispute over the results of the election in 5
128128 accordance with dispute resolution processes es-6
129129 tablished under regulations promulgated by the 7
130130 Commission. 8
131131 ‘‘(D) D
132132 EADLINE FOR PROMULGATION OF 9
133133 REGULATIONS.—The Commission shall promul-10
134134 gate the regulations described in this paragraph 11
135135 not later than November 1, 2023.’’. 12
136136 (2) C
137137 ONFORMING AMENDMENT CLARIFYING AP -13
138138 PLICABILITY OF ALTERNATIVE LANGUAGE ACCESSI -14
139139 BILITY.—Section 301(a)(4) of such Act (52 U.S.C. 15
140140 21081(a)(4)) is amended by inserting ‘‘(including 16
141141 the paper ballots required to be produced under 17
142142 paragraph (2))’’ after ‘‘voting system’’. 18
143143 (3) O
144144 THER CONFORMING AMENDMENTS .—Sec-19
145145 tion 301(a)(1) of such Act (52 U.S.C. 21081(a)(1)) 20
146146 is amended— 21
147147 (A) in subparagraph (A)(i), by striking 22
148148 ‘‘counted’’ and inserting ‘‘counted, in accord-23
149149 ance with paragraphs (2) and (3)’’; 24
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153153 (B) in subparagraph (A)(ii), by striking 1
154154 ‘‘counted’’ and inserting ‘‘counted, in accord-2
155155 ance with paragraphs (2) and (3)’’; 3
156156 (C) in subparagraph (A)(iii), by striking 4
157157 ‘‘counted’’ each place it appears and inserting 5
158158 ‘‘counted, in accordance with paragraphs (2) 6
159159 and (3)’’; and 7
160160 (D) in subparagraph (B)(ii), by striking 8
161161 ‘‘counted’’ and inserting ‘‘counted, in accord-9
162162 ance with paragraphs (2) and (3)’’. 10
163163 (b) A
164164 VAILABILITY OFADDITIONALFUNDINGTOEN-11
165165 ABLESTATESTOMEETCOSTS OFREVISEDREQUIRE-12
166166 MENT.— 13
167167 (1) E
168168 XTENSION OF REQUIREMENTS PAYMENTS 14
169169 FOR MEETING REVISED REQUIREMENT ; AMOUNTS 15
170170 DEEMED TO MEET REQUIREMENTS FOR EMERGENCY 16
171171 FUNDING.—Section 257(a) of such Act (52 U.S.C. 17
172172 21007(a)) is amended by adding at the end the fol-18
173173 lowing new paragraph: 19
174174 ‘‘(5) For fiscal year 2023, such sums as may be 20
175175 necessary to enable States to meet the requirements 21
176176 of section 301(a)(2) which are first imposed on the 22
177177 State pursuant to the amendments made by section 23
178178 2(a) of the Securing America’s Elections Act of 24
179179 2021. Any amount appropriated pursuant to the au-25
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183183 thorization under this paragraph shall be designated 1
184184 by the Congress as being for an emergency require-2
185185 ment pursuant to section 251(b)(2)(A)(i) of the Bal-3
186186 anced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 4
187187 1985.’’. 5
188188 (2) A
189189 MOUNT OF PAYMENT BASED ON COSTS IN -6
190190 CURRED IN MEETING REVISED REQUIREMENTS .— 7
191191 Section 252 of such Act (52 U.S.C. 21002) is 8
192192 amended— 9
193193 (A) in subsection (a), by striking ‘‘sub-10
194194 section (c)’’ and inserting ‘‘subsections (c) and 11
195195 (e)’’; 12
196196 (B) by redesignating subsection (e) as sub-13
197197 section (f); and 14
198198 (C) by inserting after subsection (d) the 15
199199 following new subsection: 16
200200 ‘‘(e) S
201201 PECIALRULE FORFISCALYEAR2023.— 17
202202 ‘‘(1) C
203203 OVERAGE OF COSTS OF MEETING RE -18
204204 VISED BALLOT VERIFICATION AND AUDIT CAPACITY 19
205205 REQUIREMENTS.—The amount of a requirements 20
206206 payment made to a State from funds appropriated 21
207207 for fiscal year 2023 shall be equal to the State’s es-22
208208 timate of the reasonable costs the State expects to 23
209209 incur to meet the requirements referred to in para-24
210210 graph (3), as contained in the statement filed by the 25
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214214 State with the Commission under section 1
215215 253(f)(1)(A)(ii). 2
216216 ‘‘(2) R
217217 ECOUPMENT OF OVERPAYMENTS .—If a 3
218218 State receives a requirements payment from funds 4
219219 appropriated for fiscal year 2020, the State shall 5
220220 agree to repay to the Commission the excess (if any) 6
221221 of— 7
222222 ‘‘(A) the amount of the payment; over 8
223223 ‘‘(B) the actual costs incurred by the State 9
224224 in meeting the requirements referred to in para-10
225225 graph (3), as contained in the statement filed 11
226226 by the State with the Commission under section 12
227227 253(f)(1)(B). 13
228228 ‘‘(3) R
229229 EQUIREMENTS DESCRIBED .—The re-14
230230 quirements referred to in this paragraph are the re-15
231231 quirements of section 301(a)(2) (relating to ballot 16
232232 verification and audit capacity) which are first im-17
233233 posed on the State pursuant to the amendments 18
234234 made by section 2(a) of the Securing America’s 19
235235 Elections Act of 2023.’’. 20
236236 (3) R
237237 EVISED CONDITIONS FOR RECEIPT OF 21
238238 FUNDS.—Section 253 of such Act (52 U.S.C. 22
239239 21003) is amended— 23
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243243 (A) in subsection (a), by striking ‘‘A State 1
244244 is eligible’’ and inserting ‘‘Except as provided in 2
245245 subsection (f), a State is eligible’’; and 3
246246 (B) by adding at the end the following new 4
247247 subsection: 5
248248 ‘‘(f) S
249249 PECIALRULE FORFISCALYEAR2023.— 6
250250 ‘‘(1) I
251251 N GENERAL.—Notwithstanding any other 7
252252 provision of this part, a State is eligible to receive 8
253253 a requirements payment from funds appropriated for 9
254254 fiscal year 2023 if, at any time after the funds are 10
255255 appropriated, the chief executive officer of the State, 11
256256 or designee, in consultation and coordination with 12
257257 the chief State election official— 13
258258 ‘‘(A) files a statement with the Commis-14
259259 sion— 15
260260 ‘‘(i) describing how the State will use 16
261261 the payment to meet the requirements of 17
262262 section 301(a)(2) (relating to ballot 18
263263 verification and audit capacity) which are 19
264264 first imposed on the State pursuant to the 20
265265 amendment made by section 2(a) of the 21
266266 Securing America’s Elections Act of 2023, 22
267267 and 23
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271271 ‘‘(ii) containing the State’s estimate 1
272272 of the reasonable costs the State expects to 2
273273 incur to meet such requirements; and 3
274274 ‘‘(B) certifies to the Commission that, 4
275275 upon completing the replacement or upgrading 5
276276 of its voting systems to meet such require-6
277277 ments, the State will file a statement with the 7
278278 Commission containing the actual costs in-8
279279 curred by the State in meeting such require-9
280280 ments. 10
281281 ‘‘(2) C
282282 ERTIFICATIONS BY STATES THAT RE -11
283283 QUIRE CHANGES TO STATE LAW .—In the case of a 12
284284 State that requires State legislation to carry out any 13
285285 activity covered by any certification submitted under 14
286286 this subsection, the State shall be permitted to make 15
287287 the certification notwithstanding that the legislation 16
288288 has not been enacted at the time the certification is 17
289289 submitted and such State shall submit an additional 18
290290 certification once such legislation is enacted.’’. 19
291291 (4) P
292292 ERMITTING USE OF FUNDS FOR REIM -20
293293 BURSEMENT FOR COSTS PREVIOUSLY INCURRED .— 21
294294 Section 251(c)(1) of such Act (52 U.S.C. 22
295295 21001(c)(1)) is amended by striking the period at 23
296296 the end and inserting the following: ‘‘, or as a reim-24
297297 bursement for any costs incurred in meeting the re-25
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301301 quirements of section 301(a)(2) which are first im-1
302302 posed pursuant to the amendments made by section 2
303303 2(a) of the Securing America’s Elections Act of 3
304304 2023 or in otherwise replacing or upgrading voting 4
305305 systems in response to such amendments.’’. 5
306306 (5) R
307307 ULE OF CONSTRUCTION REGARDING USE 6
308308 OF FUNDS TO REPLACE OR UPGRADE SYSTEMS OB -7
309309 TAINED WITH FUNDS PROVIDED PREVIOUSLY UNDER 8
310310 HELP AMERICA VOTE ACT OF 2002 .—Nothing in the 9
311311 amendments made by this subsection or in any other 10
312312 provision of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 may 11
313313 be construed to prohibit a State from using any 12
314314 funds provided under such Act pursuant to the 13
315315 amendments made by this subsection (or any funds 14
316316 provided under such Act prior to the date of the en-15
317317 actment of this Act which remain unexpended as of 16
318318 the date of the enactment of this Act) to replace or 17
319319 upgrade a voting system purchased or otherwise ob-18
320320 tained in whole or in part using funds received 19
321321 under title I or II of the Help America Vote Act at 20
322322 any time before the date of the enactment of this 21
323323 Act. 22
324324 (6) E
325325 FFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made 23
326326 by this subsection shall apply with respect to fiscal 24
327327 years beginning with fiscal year 2023. 25
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331331 (c) STUDY ANDREPORT ONUSE OFOPEN-SOURCE 1
332332 S
333333 OFTWARE INVOTINGSYSTEMS.— 2
334334 (1) S
335335 TUDY.—The Secretary of Homeland Secu-3
336336 rity and the Election Assistance Commission, acting 4
337337 jointly, shall conduct a study of the feasibility and 5
338338 desirability of using open-source software in voting 6
339339 systems, based on information obtained from elec-7
340340 tions for Federal office held in 2020 through 2022. 8
341341 (2) R
342342 EPORT.—Not later than July 1, 2025, the 9
343343 Secretary and the Commission shall submit to Con-10
344344 gress a report on the study conducted under para-11
345345 graph (1), and shall include in the report such rec-12
346346 ommendations as the Secretary and Commission 13
347347 consider appropriate regarding the possible use of 14
348348 open-source software in the voting systems used to 15
349349 administer elections for Federal office held in 2024. 16
350350 (3) D
351351 EVELOPMENT AND MAINTENANCE OF 17
352352 SOFTWARE.—If the Secretary and the Commission 18
353353 include in the report submitted under paragraph (2) 19
354354 a recommendation that State election officials use 20
355355 open-source software in the voting systems used to 21
356356 administer elections for Federal office in the State— 22
357357 (A) the Commission shall enter into a part-23
358358 nership with appropriate private entities, in-24
359359 cluding entities engaged in the business of 25
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363363 maintaining open-source software, to develop, 1
364364 test, certify, and maintain open-source software 2
365365 for such purpose for elections held in 2028 or 3
366366 any succeeding year; and 4
367367 (B) the Commission shall ensure that such 5
368368 certified software is available without cost to 6
369369 State election officials. 7
370370 (d) E
371371 FFECTIVEDATE FORNEWREQUIREMENTS.— 8
372372 Section 301(d) of such Act (52 U.S.C. 21081(d)) is 9
373373 amended to read as follows: 10
374374 ‘‘(d) E
375375 FFECTIVEDATE.— 11
376376 ‘‘(1) I
377377 N GENERAL.—Except as provided in para-12
378378 graph (2), each State and jurisdiction shall be re-13
379379 quired to comply with the requirements of this sec-14
380380 tion on and after January 1, 2006. 15
381381 ‘‘(2) S
382382 PECIAL RULE FOR CERTAIN REQUIRE -16
383383 MENTS.—The requirements of subsection (a)(2) 17
384384 which are first imposed on a State and jurisdiction 18
385385 pursuant to the amendments made by section 2(a) 19
386386 of the Securing America’s Elections Act of 2023 20
387387 shall apply with respect to the regularly scheduled 21
388388 general election for Federal office held in November 22
389389 2024 and each succeeding election for Federal of-23
390390 fice.’’. 24
391391 Æ
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